Gold News & Info

Source: Bill Musgrave, American Gold Exchange

Austin— Gold jumped 0.9% to close at a four-week high near $1,287 as equities fell on Brexit jitters and the dollar retreated ahead of this week's meeting of the Federal Reserve. The metal has now surged 6% in the past seven sessions.

Anxiety over the British referendum on exiting the EU, scheduled for June 24, is causing risk-off sentiment worldwide, stoking demand for safe haven assets like U.S. Treasury bonds and the Japanese yen as well as gold and silver.

U.S. and global equities fell sharply, with the Dow losing around 0.8% and the Global Dow twice that much. Meanwhile, the CBOE Market Volatility Index, Wall Street's so-called fear index, climbed to the highest level in three months.

At stake in the Brexit are crucial trade agreements, financial regulations, and travel and labor rules, the renegotiation of which would throw damaging uncertainty into already-fragile economies. Roughly 44% of British goods and services go to the EU, comprising 12% of British GDP.

U.S. Treasury bonds rallied alongside gold in flights to safety, pushing yields to the lowest levels in more than three years. Yields for German bunds fell to near-record lows.

The dollar dropped another 0.3% against major rivals, extending last week's selloff as traders recalibrate for the near-certainty that the Fed will refrain from raising interest rates when it meets this week. Along with growing jitters about the possible Brexit fallout, a litany of surprisingly weak U.S. employment data has helped to push the horizon for monetary tightening back until December, according to Fed fund futures trading.

The other precious metals were mostly higher. Silver gained 0.7% and platinum edged up 0.1% while palladium dipped by less than 0.1%.

At the Comex close: August gold gained $11 to $1,286.90; July silver picked up 11 cents to $17.44; July platinum inched up $1.10 to $995.30; and September palladium edged down 10 cents to $545.85 an ounce.